8 WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day Impulse Reactions
An Undisputed shocker closes an eventful TakeOver on a high and The Dusty Cup delivers...
Not since Randy Savage stopped promoting Slim Jims has a wrestling product felt more in need of a little excitement.
The pulse-rate for NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day was nonexistent going in, or to be crueller, about the pace of the average viewer. It was tough to know during the go-home episode if those vital 50+ers had even been catered to by what their fellow quintagenarians had provided as a closing angle. As the commentary team left the booth to run down the card, the wrestlers assembled in time with their names being read out. Like schoolchildren lining up to go into class, which is effectively how the wrestlers are presented on the black-and-gold brand under Dads Triple H and William Regal anyway.
Maybe that's what the company meant by developmental all along? School on Wednesdays before going to work on Mondays and Fridays where you get b*llocked by your bosses. WWE is often accused of being out of step with the real world but that's pretty relatable content. As has been NXT since the start of 2021. Lockdown life remains frustrating, boring and anger-inducing, which pretty much sums up most episodes of the show that was and is supposed to still be for the discerning viewer.
Did Edge really believe this show was still about the middle "W" in the company initials? The viewing public didn't, but this roster set out to prove it yet again - what else could they do without actual storylines? And moreover, how did they get on?
8. Pre-Show Preambles
Kudos to Wade Barrett, the typically irritating Sam Roberts and that work experience guy for trying to find drama in the absence of it on the TakeOver: Vengeance Day Kickoff.
The theme of the (excellent) video packages remained the same - the wrestlers wanted to win their wrestling matches, having won and lost some other key wrestling matches here and there on the way to this supposedly elite stage.
This changed when the former Eli Drake arrived on the scene going by his new name LA Knight. Ignoring yet another stinker out of the same think tank that shat out "Santos Escobar" as a passable moniker, Knight delivered his material with the same confidence and poise present during his well-regarded previous runs.
The unintentional (?) Rock imitation felt more pronounced here than it ever did in the Impact Zone, and Triple H surely had to know that if he was watching with his producer headset on. It at least created a talking point before the event - itself a hell of an achievement judging by the lack of buzz online.